Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't own Harry Potter. You know that.

Not much to say in this Author's Note. This chapter is a little more serious than the last one. Hope you like it. If you love me and want me to be inspired to keep writing, review please?

dnd4ever—thanks.

Wytil—Was this a quick enough update? I've been working on this pretty steadily, It's my other story that's being neglected. I know where I'm going with that one, just not how to get there.

jbfritz—Thanks, and thanks for understanding.

Me222—Okay, okay, now posted. :-)

Tei'La—Thanks. Yeah, I hadn't been planning on doing that Parseltongue thing, it just showed up out of nowhere. There might be another one if it fits in with the story.

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CHAPTER 58: The Joke's Over

            "Well, now that you're all here, I've got something I'd like to say." Harry's voice was serious and his face was grim. The other kids knew this was not a good sign.

            Lavender whispered, "This can't be good."

            Parvati whispered back, "Do you think he knows that we were the ones who made Pansy go bald?"

            "He can't know! We covered our tracks," she whispered back.

            "I think I was speaking," said Harry loudly. He looked grimmer than before.

            The whispers that had permeated the room went silent as the grave.

            "I have heard and witnessed some…unpleasant encounters this week between the members of this organization and the Slytherins. More so than usual. Anybody care offer an explanation?" He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, waiting.

            Neville confessed, "I used the tripping jinx on Malfoy on Monday. But you can't say he didn't deserve it!"

            Everyone else began confessing what they'd done to various Slytherins. Even Hermione admitted that she had levitated Millicent Bulstrode's soup at lunch on Thursday so that it splattered all over her.

            "I never saw that."

            She blushed. "I waited until you'd left."

            After everyone else had said what they'd done, Harry looked at Lavender and Parvati. "You two seem awfully quiet."

            "We were the ones that cut off all of Pansy's hair," Parvati said finally.

            After everyone had had a good laugh at the unfortunate week the Slytherins had had, Harry called them to quiet again, his face and voice now both equally grim. "Why did everyone do this?"

            "I don't know about anybody else, but I felt more confident knowing that we were a group and somebody would back me up," someone said.

            "Yeah," agreed several others.

            Harry was puzzled. "But we've been a group all year. Most of us since last year."

            "Yeah, but now we have something that proves it!" They rolled up their sleeves and Harry saw the Phoenixes, still in perfect condition. They glittered on every arm. Nobody had just washed their's off, they'd gone to great lengths to keep them perfect.

            Harry didn't admit it, but he didn't even let his smudge. It was still in mint condition as well. But this was what he'd been worried of, what Hagrid had warned him of. He asked quietly, "Why are these pen markings on your arm so important to you?"

            "Now everybody else can know what we know."

            "The Dumbledore's stronger."

            "And that united with him, we're all stronger than we would be separately."

            "There's safety in numbers and it proves we have numbers."

            Responses like this continued for a few minutes, but soon dissolved into silence.

            "Why is it worrying you, Harry?" asked Terry.

            He sighed. "How much do any of you know about Death Eaters?"

            "They work for You-Know-Who!"

            "When they join him they get some sort of tattoo on their arm of the Dark Mark. When he wants them he finds one and presses the Dark Mark on his or her arm. The Mark on everyone else's arm burns and they have to Apperate to him immediately. No delays. They're forced to be connected to him for a lifetime," Harry said.

            "But this is different," Susan protested. "There's nothing like that on here. It is just ink."

            "How different is it? Don't you feel like you've been branded? Like you're cows or something? Like you're just mindless sheep like those forsaken Death Eaters? They're little lapdogs for crying out loud, doing their master's bidding."

            "This is different, Harry. We're choosing this," said Seamus.

            "So did they," Harry said quietly. "They had a choice to make and they made it."

            "And so do we," Ernie said. "This is our choice."

            "Do all of you feel that way?" He looked around.

            Slowly, everyone nodded.

            Hermione noticed how tired and haggard her friend look. His eyes were haunted.

            His voice was quiet. "If that's your decision, fine. But I don't want to see any more of these petty fights with the Slytherins, understand? It's giving us a bad name and a bad reputation. We're the good guys. We don't going picking on people, especially anyone weaker than us. It's one thing if they start something. Then you can finish it, but don't provoke them and don't punish them anymore than necessary. Understand?"

            They didn't respond.

            "This is for your own health! I asked if you understood! Do you?"

            "We understand, Harry," Zacharias said, his voice somewhat cold.

            "Good. Then get out your wands. We're going to be reviewing defensive spells for the next hour and a half."

            They did. By the time Harry was through with them, most were sweating and cursing.

            Ron muttered, "Blimey! This is worse than Quiditch practice with Angelina!"

            "Keep your wrist tighter, Smith. Weasley, stop muttering and start concentrating. Brown, don't grip your wand so tight. Everyone, you can glare at me all you want, I know you are, but these spells will save your life."

            When they were finally through (and thoroughly exhausted) Harry made one more announcement. "I've been thinking that we could stand to do some recruiting. Everybody think about it this week and next week, if you can, bring a list of names of people you think would make good additions to our organization. Don't forget what I said about the Slytherins." Harry was the first one to leave, but Hermione easily caught up with him.

            "Harry, can we talk?"

            "I'm hungry. I'm going to the kitchens," he said shortly.

            "Then I'll come too."

            Harry's legs were longer and it took all of Hermione's breath to keep up with him. So she didn't get to say anything until they'd reached the kitchens and told the house-elves what they wanted. They sat down.

            "Harry, you aren't yourself."

            "Me?" He laughed hoarsely. "Me? Look at the rest of those nutters. Even you! Honestly, can you remember the last time before this that you ever pranked a Slytherin on your own?"

            "No," she said in a small voice.

            "They feel powerful because now they know and they feel like they finally have proof that they're allied with somebody powerful. Just like the Death Eaters. A lot of them went to Voldemort because he had the power. The Mark identified them with him. A bond that would last through life. Because of all this, they felt like they were invincible. That's what's happening with the members of the D.A. right now. The Phoenix and Dumbledore. Merlin, those idiots are starting to believe they're invincible!" He buried his face in his hands.

            "What can we do to show them they're not?" she asked.

            "I don't know. I just don't know. I was hoping that by making them work so hard today, they'd understand that this isn't all fun and games."

            "I've got it. You can attack them."

            "Attack them?"

            "This week. One by one you attack them. Show them how easy it is for them to be caught off guard."

            "You're a bloody genius, Hermione!" He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.

            "Well, that's my role in this after all, right? You two fight and I'm the brains."

            Harry laughed. Not exactly because she was being funny, but just because he needed to laugh, otherwise he might start crying.

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            Harry did that. He saw Colin walking alone along the hallway later that night. He shouted the tripping curse; then another curse, one that prevented Colin from getting up. Harry stood over him, with his wand pointed at him.

            "H-H-Harry? What are you doing?" Colin asked.

            Harry performed the counter-jinxes. "Teaching you that you're not safe. You need to be on your guard. You know the spells that would have stopped you from ending up defenseless on the floor like that. But you weren't even aware that anyone was behind. Be aware. Don't tell anyone I was here. It's quiz time and everyone is getting tested." He stuck out a hand to help Colin up. "We don't attack behind people's backs like this, Colin." He shook his head. "Not our side, but their side will. You've got to be ready."

            Colin nodded. Harry stalked off to find his next victim. Ginny was hit with the leg-locker curse first, then she managed to get in a flying bat-bogey hex, but then he used Expelliarmus to relieve her of her wand.

            He waved his own to cancel out the bat-bogeys.

            "Trying to teach me a lesson?" she asked.

            "Yes," he said grimly. He gave her almost the same speech he'd given Colin and the same warnings. He canceled out the curses on her and helped her up.

            Over the next week, Harry managed to catch every member of the D.A. off guard, including Ron and Hermione. The only who'd managed to avoid being caught was Luna.

            He was extra quiet walking up behind him, but just as he opened his mouth to utter a spell, she turned around and calmly said another to relieve him of his wand. Then she used Impediemente. He was thrown backward, but yelled, "Accio!" with such force and conviction that even without his wand, his magic was strong enough to pull it back to him.

            They had a proper duel then (without actually starting over or anything) flinging and dodging curses, hexes, spells, and jinxes. There were several that Harry didn't recognize, but by fancy maneuvering he managed to get by.

            Quite a few people had gathered around them in the corridor, urging one or the other of them on.

            A few people muttered, "What's going on?"

            "Yeah, I thought they were dating. What happened?"

            "Well, maybe she caught him kissing another girl and she went nutso."

            Others asked, "Who started it?"

            "I don't know, we just came and found them like this."

            And yet others were saying, "Shouldn't we tell someone about this?"

            "Nah, I want to see what happens!"

            Harry and Luna were about neck-in-neck. For every curse he threw, she blocked it. For every jinx she threw, he blocked it and threw another back at her.

            They were both breathing hard when Professor McGonagall showed up. "What is the meaning of this?" she asked.

            Harry and Luna were too busy fighting to respond.

            A 3rd year next to her said, "Well, they're dueling. They're both really, really good, aren't they?" Admiration was evident on her beaming face.

            "Mr. Potter! Miss Lovegood! Cease and desist!"

            They were way too into things to stop now.

            Harry's jelly-legs curse almost hit her and her stunning charm was just as near to catching him.

            "This has gone far enough! Accio wands!" Professor McGonagall pointed at the students and slowly, the wands soared out of their tight grips.

            Harry was breathing heavily, looking at Luna. "Nice match," he panted.

            "Not so bad yourself," she replied. She blinked once, and she had resumed her usual dazed expression. She stared off into space. She wandered off slowly, apparently unaware of the crowd parting for her.

            "What is the meaning of this?" McGonagall asked Harry, her mouth set in a tight line.

            "We were just practicing. Just a friendly little match. Nothing wrong with that, is there, Professor?"
            "Well…" she started.

            Dumbledore appeared at just that moment, "Hello, Mr. Potter. A splendid day, don't you think?" He was beaming.

            "Er, yeah, I guess."

            "I was wondering if you might like to come up to my office for some tea?"

            "Er, sure. Thank you, Professor." He meant it; Dumbledore was saving him from whatever punishment McGonagall was planning.

            Dumbledore led Harry to his office. Once they were away from the crowd, Dumbledore said, "I caught Miss Lovegood a moment ago. She will be joining us and may already be in my office. The house-elves have brought up tea and scones."

            They went inside, Luna was already waiting.

            "Harry, I have it on good authority that you've been attacking students all week."

            "Just trying to prepare them, sir. They're treating everything as a joke."

            "Everything. Voldemort. They suddenly feel a lot more powerful and aren't recognizing the risks. I was just giving them a wake up call, sir."

            "Except in the case of, Ms. Lovegood?"

            Luna was in the chair next to Harry, staring off into nowhere as she at and drank.

            "Yes. Well, you see, she detected my presence and so rather than me being able to quickly disable her as I had done with all the others. How did you know I was there anyway?" he turned to her.

            "I just knew. I couldn't here you, but I knew you were there."

            "Great," he muttered.

            A slow smile spread across her face. "I always know. That's how I found you when you went after Malfoy. And when you were with Colin and Dennis and Marcus."

            Dumbledore smiled at Harry and whispered, "I told you she was special."

            "Yeah. Professor, things are getting a little weird with the D.A." He explained the situation from the previous meeting.

            "I believe you are taking all the right steps, Harry. I wish you the best of luck."

            "Thanks."

            "I'll always be here if you need me. Goodbye, Harry."

            Harry pulled Luna out of her chair. "Dumbledore said to leave," he muttered as she didn't move.

            "Actually, I would like to speak to Ms. Lovegood for a few moments."

            Harry exited.

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Wow is Harry moody or what? Wonder if he's PMSing…nope not a girl. Yet. Hmmmmm…I could add a random body switching spell. Don't think I'll do that though. Maybe in another story. Sorry, really random today.